Frugal. By Nature.

Celebrating Garage Sale Success

Last weekend I joined several relatives in holding a garage sale. Since we live in the middle of the woods, I was lucky to join a garage sale in a small town as part of the city-wide garage sales.

I brought two vehicles (including a minivan) packed full of stuff to sell. And I came home with $140, a TV cart, and a Rubbermaid container of stuff. Not too bad for an afternoon of chatting with some fun people.

I’ve participated in garage sales several times, but this was one of my most successful. I think there are a few reasons why this year’s sale was more successful than others.

I priced things low. I was more interested in getting rid of the stuff than I was in making a buck. It made more sense to me to let things go for cheap than to pay the $12 in gas to drive to town to donate it later.

I had what people were looking for. I sold a ton of quality baby and toddler clothing and toys. I also had a few bigger items such as a computer desk and a TV stand that people were looking for. I noticed that most of the bargain hunters were looking for kids’ stuff, home decor, furniture or tools. Household stuff and adult clothing didn’t move much at all.

I was quick to come down in price when people made decent offers. My mission was to bring home as little of my inventory as possible. If someone made me a decent offer, I accepted. I was pretty willing to negotiate all day.

I focused on my goals. I had two goals when I started preparing for my garage sale: To eliminate clutter from my garage and to earn at least enough money to fund some of oursummer projects. I made sure to get my kids involved in determining what toys they wanted to sell. My husband was motivated by the idea of having an organized garage.

If I had any regrets about our garage sale, it is that it didn’t get advertised very well. We had a lot of signs and it was listed on the map of city-wide sales, but it should have been in the newspaper more.

I’m thrilled with how this year’s sale went and am looking forward to next year. This time, I’m going to be smart and try to price things as I clean and sort so that I’ll be ready for the next sale.

Have you had a garage sale this summer? How did it go? What did you learn from the experience?

Comments

I’m glad you had a successful sale. I had one last year in early June, but this year I was able to participate in the community sale last month. I thought I would have more traffic (I live in the country) this year by participating in the community sale…but, I don’t think I did. However, I did have repeat customers (yeah!) and the people who did stop knew that I had tons of kid stuff because of the ad in the community sale. I unloaded lots of stuff and earned some cash so it was worth it. I wish I would have put an ad in one of the area newspapers (because it’s free), but I forgot…I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that one of my city friends has a sale at her home at the end of the summer or early fall because no one was even remotely interested in Halloween costumes or Winter clothes in May. If not, I will pack up items throughout the year for next year’s sale (it pays to have an annual sale with 3 kids), this year I think I will price things as I pack them up. I didn’t price as I packed last year because I noticed my pricing was inconsistent the previous year because I had been boxing items up for a few years. I think I will make a “pricing cheat sheet” to reference this time around.

That is odd that you didn’t get more people with the community sale. But good that you had repeat customers. I actually know a gal who does an e-mail sign up sheet at her sales for people who want to know when her next sale is!

Have you looked into selling Halloween costumes on consignment… I did well when I did that. Selling them on Ebay in September is also a good bet.

Yes… I must remember to price as a sort. I like the idea of the pricing cheat sheet!

I take all of our “perfect” clothing items to an area consignment shop, but I haven’t taken the costumes yet. Thanks for the reminder. I also take “leftover” clothing in good condition and toys to exchange store. But I haven’t tried Ebay…yet.

did you list it on craigslist?
as an avid garage saler, that’s my sole go-to for finding sales to visit.
i rarely stop off of signs i see on the street because i never know if they have items i’m looking for (kid stuff mainly)
craigslist makes it easy to list all the major categories of items you have for sale, even pictures.